Silver halide photographic light-sensitive materials (hereinafter referred to merely as "light-sensitive materials") tend to be easily varied in photographic performance (e.g., sensitivity, gradation, and in particular, fog) during the storage thereof. Although it is impossible to completely avoid such variations in photographic performance with the lapse of time, it is desirable to reduce them as much as possible. Therefore, a number of investigations have heretofore been made for that purpose.
It is known that in order to prevent variations in photographic performance, particularly the occurrence of fog involved in storage or development, heterocyclic compounds such as 1-phenyl-5-mercaptotetrazoles (as described in Belgian Pat. No. 671,402, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,295,976, 3,376,310, 3,615,616, 3,071,465, 3,420,664 and 2,403,927, Japanese patent application (OPI) No. 37436/75 (the term "OPI" as used herein refers to a "published unexamined Japanese patent application"), etc.), benzotriazoles (as described in British Pat. Nos. 919,061 and 768,438, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,157,509 and 3,082,088, German Pat. No. 617,712, etc.), benzimidazoles (as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,137,578, 3,148,066 and 3,511,663, British Pat. Nos. 271,475, 1,344,548, 3,148,066 and 3,511,663, German Pat. Nos. 708,424, 635,769 and 2,205,539, etc.), and indazoles (as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,106,467, 3,420,670, 1,763,990 and 2,271,229, etc.) are incorporated in light-sensitive materials, or added to processing solutions. These compounds, however, have disadvantages in that their effect with respect to inhibiting the increase of fog during the storage is insufficient and they give rise to a reduction in sensitivity.
In color light-sensitive materials, particularly those for picture-taking, the amount of silver salt used is large and, further, colloidal silver is used in a yellow filter layer and an antihalation layer. This increases the time required for bleaching, which presents an obstacle with respect to increasing the processing speed. Compounds having a high fog-preventing effect, e.g., 1-(amidophenyl)-5-mercaptotetrazole, among the known antifoggants easily form stable salts in combination with silver and, therefore, they retard the removal of silver during a bleaching step, further decreasing the processing speed. This tendency is prominent particularly when bleaching agents having a low bleaching power, for example, persulfates, are used. Therefore, there is a need for stabilizers which are capable of preventing variations in photographic performance during storage without reducing desilvering properties. However, none of the conventionally known compounds meet these needs.